President Joe Biden announced new climate goals with only 31 days left in office.
“I’m proud that my administration is carrying out the boldest climate agenda in American history,” Biden said in a video statement.
“We’re doing it by setting ambitious goals,” he said, explaining offshore wind initiatives, land and water conservation, and cutting pollution.
“That’s why I’m proud to announce an ambitious new coal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035,” Biden continued. “That’s leading to more good-paying jobs, more affordable energy, cleaner air, cleaner water, healthier environment for everyone.”
He added that the United States “will turn this existential threat into a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform our nations for generations to come.”
According to a White House fact sheet, the climate efforts bolster Biden’s target of a “net zero greenhouse gas economy no later than 2050 and marks an ambitious capstone to President Biden’s climate legacy, focused on investment, innovation, creating millions of good-paying and union jobs, building the clean energy economy of the future, reducing costs for all Americans, advancing environmental justice, and improving the health and security of communities across America.”
The incoming Trump administration is expected to roll back environmental efforts.
“In his first term, President Trump advanced conservation and environmental stewardship while promoting economic growth for families,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to AFP. She added that Trump’s policies “produced affordable, reliable energy for consumers along with stable, high-paying jobs” and emphasized that his second term “will once again deliver clean air and water for American families while Making America Wealthy Again.”
